RE: Are you angry DBA?

Stephen,

>>seem to get really confused about 'responsibility' and 'authority'. Great point on 'responsibility' and 'authority'. Funny thing, Sales people really know the difference. You can not sell anything to someone with just 'responsibility'.  

>> Turned out they needed to run STATSPACK and >> thought that you had to be SYSDBA to do it.

I agree.

Chris Marquez
Oracle DBA

-----Original Message-----
From: stephen booth [mailto:stephenbooth.uk_at_gmail.com] Sent: Mon 8/29/2005 11:55 AM
To: Marquez, Chris
Cc: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: Re: Are you angry DBA?  

On 29/08/05, Marquez, Chris <cmarquez_at_collegeboard.org> wrote:
>
> Anybody feel differently?
>

My criteria for taking ownership of a database is the question: "Will I get my ass kicked if this database dies/gets screwed up?"

If the answer is "No." then it's just a database I work on. If the answer is "Yes." then it's my database and I'll stringently control it in so far as I can. It's like how people, especially managers, seem to get really confused about 'responsibility' and 'authority'. A lot os managers seem that they can delegate responsibility for something to an underling without delegating authority. What a load of BS. How the heck can you hold someone responsible for something they didn't have the authority to influence and you ignored their advice to use your authority to influence it.

To get back to the original question. If I'm going to be held responsible for something then I'm going to want to exert the authority (directly or indirectly) I need to keep it in a reasonable standard of health. If I don't have the authority, the control, then I don't see how I can have the responsibility?

Sometimes all it needs is the right to ask questions. For example the vendor of one of the packages we run demanded SYSDBA access to the production server. I asked why. Turned out they needed to run STATSPACK and thought that you had to be SYSDBA to do it.

Other times you need to exert a bit more control.

Stephen

-- 
It's better to ask a silly question than to make a silly assumption.



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